The Vision of the Goat - Daniel 8:5-8

Another conqueror would be given the title, “the Great,”
which Cyrus had held. This conqueror was depicted by a
prominent horn between the eyes of a male goat. Normally, a
goat has two horns but not this one. The goat is Greece and
this horn is Alexander the Great.

The national emblem of Macedonia (Greece) was a “goat,”
and the goat is found on the coins of that country. Its
ancient capital was called Aegae, or the “Goat City,”
while the adjacent waters were called the Aegean or
“Goat-Sea.” Hence, the son of Alexander the Great by
Roxana was called Aegus, the “Son of a Goat.”

Alexander the Great was born in 356 B.C., and educated
under Aristotle. His father, Philip of Macedonia, was a
great conqueror. When he was murdered, Alexander took over
a powerful military.

In 334 B.C., Alexander the Great came from the region
of Macedonia and Greece, striking a fatal blow to Medo-Persia.
Like a giant goat, he leaped over the Hellespont with his
army of 30,000 infantry and 5,000 cavalry, and he
completely crushed a Persian army on the banks of the
Granicus. He then swiftly advanced eastward and a year
later defeated a Persian army of 600,000 in a battle at
Issus. By 331 B.C., Alexander was on the banks of the
Tigris River, where he defeated an enormous army led by
King Darius.

Between the years 330 B.C. and 327 B.C., Alexander
captured the outlying provinces of the Persian Empire. He
invaded and conquered the entire Near East and Middle East
within three years. His rapid conquest is symbolized by
the goat crossing the whole earth without touching the
ground. To this day, Alexander’s rapid conquest remains
unique in military history. Despite the Persian forces’
immense numbers and commanding military equipment
(including war elephants), young Alexander’s tactical
genius and disciplined Macedonian army won the day.

At the height of Alexander’s power in 323 B.C., the
goat’s prominent horn was broken off. At age 33, the world
conqueror died at Babylon, in his vomit from a drunken
stupor or from poison given by Cassander or complications
from malaria. His early demise is a demonstration of God’s
sovereignty over the rise and fall of empires and of great
leaders.

And in its place four prominent horns grew up towards
the four winds of heaven.

As indicated earlier by the four heads of the third
beast (7:6), Alexander’s four generals divided the empire
into four parts: Lysimachus ruled Thrace and Bithynia;
Cassander ruled Macedonia and Greece; Seleucus ruled
Syria, Babylonia and eastward to India; and Ptolemy, ruled
Egypt, Palestine and Arabia Petraea. This division
occurred after twenty-one years of intense fighting to
gain rule following the death of Alexander. Antigonus was
a fifth general who was defeated and shoved out, leaving
only four. If Antigonus had gotten in as the fifth ruler,
the reader could throw away the book of Daniel!